The award-winning San Diego singer-songwriter and an all-star lineup will sing the blues for a good cause Sunday at Belly Up. Watch exclusive video!

Earl Thomas wants everyone to get the blues, in the best possible way.

“The blues was designed to make you happy when you were feeling down,” said the veteran singer-songwriter, whose songs have been recorded by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Tom Jones, Tracy Nelson and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Etta James and Solomon Burke.

“And if you think of where the word blues came from, a celebration is exactly what it is. Because the artists who created this music were among the most oppressed people in history — slaves. So the blues is a celebration of life, and it’s an American art form created right here, on American soil, from a mix of cultures.

"They had slavery in Africa and South America. But they didn't have the blues, which is a result of the cultural mix in the U.S., where you had Europeans, Africans, native indigenous people, Asians and more, all mixing together here. Slavery, Jim Crow (era segregation) and civil rights all helped bring about this wonderful art form. And all of us artists today are standing on the shoulders of the blues, because all American music is rooted in the blues.”

Thomas will have lots of help when he celebrates the blues Sunday at the Belly Up in Solana Beach. Billed as “Raising the Roof: A Benefit Concert for the Blues Hall of Fame Museum,” the concert will feature nearly a dozen top San Diego solo artists and bands. Each will perform for 10 minutes.

At Thomas’ suggestion, they will all perform two songs, including one that each wrote especially for the concert. The twist is that no one he chose for the lineup — which includes Eve Selis, Joey Harris, Gregory Page and Bart Mendoza — is a blues artist.

“I think this is unique,” said Thomas, a four-time San Diego Music Award winner. “I’ve already heard the songs Joey, Bart, Mark DeCerbo and Princess have written, and they are each coming at it with their own style and approach.”

Proceeds from the show will go to The Blues Foundation. The nonprofit organization is seeking to build a Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, directly across from that city’s National Civil Rights Museum.

Thomas plans to do more benefit concerts in other cities after he returns from a fall concert tour of Poland, the Czech republic, Slovakia, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. he and veteran blues artist Curtis Delgado are currently working on a Blues Foundation benefit show in Portland. Thomas hopes to eventually stage a benefit in New York at B.B. King's, one of the Big Apple's largest live music nightclubs.

"There's a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in Cleveland) and rock is the direct result of blues," he said. "So I wanted to do something to help. Back in 1990s I worked with Shirley Dixon, (Chicago blues pioneer) Wilie Dixon’s daughter, on the Blues Heaven Foundation to raise money to buy the Chess Records building in Chicago, which they eventually did buy.

"So I thought I could do (fund-raising) concerts now as my contribution to help build a Blues Hall of Fame. I started asking people in San Diego, many of them musicians I came up with here in the 1990s, to participate. Everybody said 'yes,' and everybody is donating their time. So am I. This is the second concert. I did one in March in Redwood City with musicians i know from the Bay Area."

Thomas' inspiration to drum up support for the blues goes beyond his love for this vital music, which laid the foundation for jazz, rock, soul and other American music styles. He also cites the acclaimed PBS TV series “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (1954–1965)” and “Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965–1985).”

“Until I saw the series (re-air) in February, I had no idea how bad things were back then (with segregation),” Thomas said.

"My parents lived right through that in the South and never shared how bad it was with me. A lot of what makes the blues the blues today comes from that period of time. And it really got me to thinking I should make a contribution. Rather than put my energy into the aggrandizing of Earl Thomas, I’ll put my energy into raising awareness about the Blues Hall of Fame.”

Duke of Earl

Song that Earl Thomas' has written or co-written have been recorded by a wide array of past and present artists. Here are some examples: